Limit total advance???

[azfordman]

So...I've partially disassembled an extra distributor that I had sitting here. Pretty much tried to follow the instructions on the carbdford site. 1st off, the reluctor did not just pry off....I actually had to take a propane torch to it. 2nd, I did manage to get the clip for the rotor housing out...what a pain!!! I am now at a point where even with the clip out the the plate that has the mechanical advance will not budge....am I missing something? I don't mind screwing with and possibly busting an old distributor, but don't want to damage the one in the car. I will try to work on the one in the car a little later today. A question though, it looks like the mechanical and vacuum advance work independently from each other....is this correct? So even if I get the mechanical works going properly, the vacuum advance is still going to advance the timing farther than I want it to go. Am I looking at running without the vacuum advance? And back to my original question, since the vacuum on my engine increases as the RPMs increase and the whole point is to increase advance as engine speed goes up, couldn't I just put a mechanical stop on the vacuum advance arm to limit the amount of advance??? (Note....I am not asking for advice then not following it, I just enjoy learning about how things like this work!)